Alright, new year, new start-right? This week has definitely been a shot-gun start to long distance race; I'm off and running. By the time I'm done with this week, I will have taught all of my regular classes, attended 4 meetings, started doing work on the technology grant and got my first "for pay" evaluation. You can say that I've hit the ground running!
Our new teacher orientation meeting last night (one of the 4 meetings I mentioned) went really well. They tend to go by rather quickly and this one was no exception. What was kind of nice was that the first part was review for me. The teachers installed a program on their laptops that I've been using diligently since September. That made me feel pretty good because I am usually not one step ahead of the game when it comes to technology. I even showed one of my fellow new teachers one of the lessons I've done on Active Inspire. It was refreshing to be able to help another teacher. It only goes to prove that we can all provide useful tips, regardless of our levels of experience.
The other part of our meeting was about assessments vs. grading. We went over the difference between the two and how they are often mistakingly interchanged. I think I'm going to try and focus more on the learning aspect of my students' progress vs. the achievement aspect. This is tricky to do, for numerous reasons, but is attainable. I think I can work towards doing this by comparing their work on their daily reflections throughout the trimester. I can also see their progress through their assignments, although those may be a little harder to compare. In addition, I need to just keep it in the back of my head that what we as teachers truly care about is improvement and learning. Grades should reflect learning, not the student's ability to fill out a paper correctly or regurgitate information.
Anyway, back in the saddle-cheers!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
First Science Assessment and Guest Speaker
Right before break I wrapped up the first section of my anatomy and physiology class, the section on the muscular and skeletal systems. To teach this class, I decided to use case models to get the basics of structure and function to stick. For the muscular and skeletal systems I focused on the knee and its components. For their assessment, I took students two at a time and had them perform a patient/doctor "skit" where they had to fill in the blanks of the scripts to demonstrate their understanding.
Overall, I think the assessment I chose worked fairly well. The students who had been coming to class, working and paying attention seemed to get through the skit smoothly and scored well. Not surprisingly, the students who had skipped and tuned out scored poorly. I'm going to give the kids their scores next week and have them reflect in their portfolios on how well they believe they met the targets for those first 3 weeks. I want them to have more substantial reflections and documentation of the A&P class than they did from the Planet Earth class.
After I got through all of the assessments, I had Karen from Steadman-Hawkins come in and do a powerpoint on the knee for the kids. Karen was there for just under an hour and kept most of the students' attention for her entire presentation. I think the kids were engaged because they could relate to the material Karen was presenting; they had already learned a lot about it. Karen did a really nice job of showing how the information I had taught them was applicable in a career. For our kids, I think that really hit home. I was really happy I'd made the effort to bring in a professional to talk with them!
In closing, I'd just like to say that I feel like this trimester has flowed a lot more smoothly than last semester did. I have a better understanding of where I'm going, what I'm teaching and ways to teach the students the information. I'm looking forward to seeing even more progress in the coming months!
Overall, I think the assessment I chose worked fairly well. The students who had been coming to class, working and paying attention seemed to get through the skit smoothly and scored well. Not surprisingly, the students who had skipped and tuned out scored poorly. I'm going to give the kids their scores next week and have them reflect in their portfolios on how well they believe they met the targets for those first 3 weeks. I want them to have more substantial reflections and documentation of the A&P class than they did from the Planet Earth class.
After I got through all of the assessments, I had Karen from Steadman-Hawkins come in and do a powerpoint on the knee for the kids. Karen was there for just under an hour and kept most of the students' attention for her entire presentation. I think the kids were engaged because they could relate to the material Karen was presenting; they had already learned a lot about it. Karen did a really nice job of showing how the information I had taught them was applicable in a career. For our kids, I think that really hit home. I was really happy I'd made the effort to bring in a professional to talk with them!
In closing, I'd just like to say that I feel like this trimester has flowed a lot more smoothly than last semester did. I have a better understanding of where I'm going, what I'm teaching and ways to teach the students the information. I'm looking forward to seeing even more progress in the coming months!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
New Trimester
Yesterday was the first day for second trimester at our high school. It's always refreshing to start something new and I feel like the first day of classes went remarkably well. The kids were well behaved and engaged in class activities. They participated and asked questions, and in general seemed to enjoy the assignments, (yes, even in Anatomy and Physiology).
I'm just amazed by how much smoother "take-off" was for this tri. I look at the disaster of a start that I had last trimester and have to laugh at myself. Teaching is definitely a learning process, and being that I'm a newbie at it, I'm paying special attention to what techniques are successful and what one's are not. I already feel like things are falling into place much more easily with this term. It'll be interesting to see the progress by the start of third tri!
I'm just amazed by how much smoother "take-off" was for this tri. I look at the disaster of a start that I had last trimester and have to laugh at myself. Teaching is definitely a learning process, and being that I'm a newbie at it, I'm paying special attention to what techniques are successful and what one's are not. I already feel like things are falling into place much more easily with this term. It'll be interesting to see the progress by the start of third tri!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Reflections on engagement and motivation methods
Okay, so I'm a bit behind here. This teaching thing can get a bit overwhelming sometimes. If I was to compare teaching to running, I'd say that I hit my wall about 2 weeks ago and am just now finding my second wind. I feel like I'm setting a new stride for part 2 of this first year marathon. Hopefully I won't be outdoing myself and will be able to maintain a steady pace. It'll get difficult sometimes, but not unmanageable.
In our last meeting we discussed how to engage and inspire students to be active participants in their learning. I found the group lists each table came up with to be particularly useful. There were a couple of things that jumped out at me during our share out. The first one was making a competition out of an activity. I was surprised I had overlooked this method since I myself am an extremely competitive person. The other was giving the students a chance to express themselves, (yet another seemingly obvious way to engage). Well, I decided to integrate both of these methods into some science lessons. The competition method seemed to work well, even when the kids didn't know what they were competing for. It seems if you ask kids to prove themselves, they're more than willing to step up to the plate.
As for the expression method, that one I used in their final product-they had to create a new species. They had guidelines for what information I was expecting about their species, but the creativity part, the method by which they demonstrated their knowledge, was up to them. I'm still grading their final products, but I can tell you this much, I'm seeing a wide range of creatures and they were definitely engaged in the project.
All in all, I learned a lot this first trimester of teaching, (grades are due Monday night, but the next tri starts on the first). I did a lot of experimenting with teaching methods and plan to do the even more in the second tri. Still, it's nice to feel like I'm starting to get some tools in that teacher toolbox...
In our last meeting we discussed how to engage and inspire students to be active participants in their learning. I found the group lists each table came up with to be particularly useful. There were a couple of things that jumped out at me during our share out. The first one was making a competition out of an activity. I was surprised I had overlooked this method since I myself am an extremely competitive person. The other was giving the students a chance to express themselves, (yet another seemingly obvious way to engage). Well, I decided to integrate both of these methods into some science lessons. The competition method seemed to work well, even when the kids didn't know what they were competing for. It seems if you ask kids to prove themselves, they're more than willing to step up to the plate.
As for the expression method, that one I used in their final product-they had to create a new species. They had guidelines for what information I was expecting about their species, but the creativity part, the method by which they demonstrated their knowledge, was up to them. I'm still grading their final products, but I can tell you this much, I'm seeing a wide range of creatures and they were definitely engaged in the project.
All in all, I learned a lot this first trimester of teaching, (grades are due Monday night, but the next tri starts on the first). I did a lot of experimenting with teaching methods and plan to do the even more in the second tri. Still, it's nice to feel like I'm starting to get some tools in that teacher toolbox...
Monday, November 2, 2009
Honing those teaching skills...
Okay, so I've been slacking a bit when it comes to my blog. Besides struggling to just keep up with my classes, sometimes I'm just not sure what to write about. I feel like I'm learning so much all the time. I'm already thinking about how I can tweak the structure of my classes next trimester. I want my students to get the most out of what I'm teaching, as all good teachers do. It's strange though when you teach the same class more than once and the lesson is a complete hit in one and a complete miss in the other. I guess that just makes it hard to judge how good the lesson was overall. At the same time though, having the opportunity to teach the same lesson plan more than once tends to bring out overall "flaws" in the way you're teaching. I'm finding often times my instruction needs a bit of "fine-tuning." I'm trying to work more on making my targets and objectives very clear and concise. It can be difficult, but thankfully, I do feel like I'm improving!
One more quick thing, anyone who's into chili (delicious homemade chili to be exact), Red Canyon High is having our annual chili fundraiser this Saturday, November 7, at our Edwards campus. I believe it starts at noon. We also have a great silent auction to go with lots of different kinds of yummy chili!! Please come check it out!
One more quick thing, anyone who's into chili (delicious homemade chili to be exact), Red Canyon High is having our annual chili fundraiser this Saturday, November 7, at our Edwards campus. I believe it starts at noon. We also have a great silent auction to go with lots of different kinds of yummy chili!! Please come check it out!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Trucking Along...
Well, we're now at the beginning of the second "real" month of the school year. My brain was spinning with information in August and much of September, but I now feel like I'm getting into the groove of things a bit more. I've already had my mentor and master teacher, the principal AND the man who has to interview me for my alternative license all in my class-at least once. Personally, I like the feedback. It makes me more aware of things that need improvement and gives me some possible ways to implement changes. It may be slightly uncomfortable at times having someone taking notes on you while you work, but I know it's for my benefit and the benefit of the students.
Anyway, I could go on and on about how much I've learned already, but I need to get to school and do what I'm in the education business for-teach.
Anyway, I could go on and on about how much I've learned already, but I need to get to school and do what I'm in the education business for-teach.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Goals for the Newbie
Well, the school year has officially taken off! I'm trying to hit the ground running and keep a steady pace. I'm certain if I don't stay on top of things my high schoolers will run me right over! So, I have some ambitions and expectations for myself this year. I plan on getting a bit more tech-savvy for starters. It may take some time, but I'm going to get comfortable and competent at building tables, using the Promethean board and creating lessons with Powerpoint and the new Active Expression clickers.
Another thing I'd really like to work on is pacing my lessons appropriately and keeping the flow of the class smooth. We have long class periods at my school and it's tricky to keep an adolescence's attention for more than 10 minutes! Those teenagers sure are demanding and vocal about how they feel, but I honestly wouldn't want them to be any other way!
The third and most important area I'm focused on is keeping my students' interest while teaching them some valuable (and oh so interesting) knowledge. It doesn't matter how much you know if you can't convey your expertise to those who need it most!
So, there you have it-my "to-do" list for 2009-2010. In some ways I can't wait to see how far I progress in a year....
Another thing I'd really like to work on is pacing my lessons appropriately and keeping the flow of the class smooth. We have long class periods at my school and it's tricky to keep an adolescence's attention for more than 10 minutes! Those teenagers sure are demanding and vocal about how they feel, but I honestly wouldn't want them to be any other way!
The third and most important area I'm focused on is keeping my students' interest while teaching them some valuable (and oh so interesting) knowledge. It doesn't matter how much you know if you can't convey your expertise to those who need it most!
So, there you have it-my "to-do" list for 2009-2010. In some ways I can't wait to see how far I progress in a year....
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